This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

This seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom home, which was once listed at $11 million, will be put up for auction on Jan. 26.

In addition to the auction of the home, a selection of the contents will also be available for purchase, including jewellery, watches and handbags.

The home sits on half an acre of land overlooking the Mississauga Gold & Country Club.

The home is expected to sell for about $5.5 million, more than a million less than it cost to build.

There’s only one small problem — this audacious, award-winning, 18,000 square foot mansion is in Mississauga. And that’s made it a much tougher sell than expected for owner and builder Michal Cerny.

After dozens of showings, three years on the MLS, and one failed offer, Cerny is putting the seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom home — which was once listed at $11 million, a record for the Mississauga market — up for auction on January 26.

It’s expected to sell for about $5.5 million, more than a million less than it cost to build. The limestone exterior and custom-made interior plaster finishes alone came in at almost $1.5 million.

Article Continued Below

Cerny’s disappointed, of course, but hardly devastated. For years now the house, which sits on half an acre of land overlooking the Mississauga Golf & Country Club, has been a local talking point and massive model home, of sorts, for Cerny’s boutique firm, Ambassador Fine Custom Homes Inc.

“Almost everybody in Mississauga knows about this house,” says Kashif Khan, managing director of Ritchies Auctioneers, who will oversee bidding on the home, as well as $4 million in valuables, including a $1 million yellow diamond ring and a $80,000 “extremely rare” Hermes Birkin crocodile handbag.

“This home should have been built on the Bridle Path. It is so high end and so perfect that’s it’s beyond what Mississauga is used to.”

But that’s changing. Cerny has signed contracts with three international buyers so far who’ve jetted over to tour the place and are now looking to put down roots — the bigger, the better — in Mississauga.

One is planning a 24,000-square-foot custom home, just around the corner from Saxony Manor, off Mississauga Rd. on exclusive Doulton Dr.

So far, though, the top price fetched for a resale home in Mississauga has been just under $8 million, although international buyers have been erecting homes worth tens of millions and increasingly looking to Mississauga as a country-like alternative to the big city, says listing realtor Sam McDadi. A big draw is the acre-plus properties within a quick drive, as is Saxony Manor, of the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus.

“One of the advantages of the auction is that you’re exposing it to the world,” says McDadi, who is partnering with Ritchies on the auction.

Article Continued Below

“It will fast track the process and I think people can see the sheer value now. The owner spent the better part of $7 million just to build it, so it’s become an opportunity more than just a regular sale.”

The hallmark of the house is what Cerny calls “discerning luxury.”

“You know how sometimes people say the dessert is too sweet — I didn’t want to make it gaudy or over the top or too palatial,” he says.

Surprisingly, it’s not — well, except for the breathtaking 1,600 square foot master bedroom with a bathroom and closet that are each the size of a new-build downtown condo.

The wood-panelled elevator to the fourth-floor, self-contained nanny/guest suite may seem a bit excessive, but a nice touch for aging buyers and their visitors.

The house itself may look like a French chateau — there are so many limestone balconies it’s easy to lose count — but, make no mistake, this is a palace built to handle Canadian winters, even this one: The house has a heated cobblestone driveway.

Public viewings will be held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday January 22 at 2290 Saxony Court, off of Mississauga Rd. just north of the QEW. The auction starts at 2 p.m. Sunday January 26 at the house, with viewings from 11 a.m.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com